Spring FireFit competition this weekend in the CRV

The Chilliwack River Valley Fire Department is stoked to be hosting the 2015 Spring Regional Scott FireFit Challenge

Try running up six flights of stairs carrying a hose while wearing full firefighter gear.

That’s just one leg of the fierce competition going down in the Chilliwack River Valley this weekend.

They don’t call running the FireFit course “the toughest two minutes in sports” for nothing, and it mimics tasks performed every day in an emergency by firefighters.

The Chilliwack River Valley Fire Department is stoked to be hosting the 2015 Spring Regional Scott FireFit Challenge, May 16-17 at at the Chilliwack Fish and Game Club on Chilliwack Lake Road.

“It’s pretty intense,” said CRVFD Fire Chief Mike Danyluk. “The course gives the public a great opportunity to see the kind of training firefighters go through.”

More than 80 firefighters from across Canada will be streaming into the valley to test their mettle in the first Firefit challenge of the year.

They’ll don the heavy gear and start by running up six flights of stairs carrying a hose. Then they hoist another hose before running back down the stairs. The next gruelling phase has them driving a steel beam using a mallet and then running 50 metres to douse a target with a live hose.

As if that weren’t enough, the final leg of FireFit sees competitors dragging a heavy mannequin about 30 metres to the finish line. That last stretch is apparently the hardest.

The heavy-duty event tests the mettle of competitors in terms of strength, cardiovascular fitness and stamina.

The opening ceremony is at 10:30 a.m. on Saturday, with the competition starting at 11 a.m. and running until about 3:30. BBQ will be available all day.

There will be an auto-extrication demonstration at 12:30 on Saturday. Pancake breakfast for charity on Sunday morning starts at 8 a.m. and the relay competitions begin.